The Merman
by LilyJamesAllena
Summary: When Princess Melody's paternal grandmother returns for her seventeenth birthday celebration she not only showers her only granddaughter with presents, but also suitors from foreign kingdoms in hopes of a match. What the Queen Mother doesn't know is that her beloved granddaughter wants nothing to do with the princes of Arendelle and Corona… she only wants the merman from Atlantica
1. Introduction

**All rights go to Disney.**

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**When Princess Melody's paternal grandmother, Victoria, returns from her travels for her seventeenth birthday celebration, she not only showers her only granddaughter with presents but suitors from foreign kingdoms in the hopes of a match. Among the honored guests are Prince Kennet of Arendelle and Prince Frederic of Corona, both handsome and charming and completely bewitched by the young princess. But what the princes and the Dowager Queen don't know is that Melody is already in love… with a merman.**

**Meet the Royal Family:**

-The dowager queen, Victoria

-Victoria's son, King Eric

-Eric's wife, Queen Ariel

-Eric and Ariel's daughter, the heir apparent Princess Melody (16 about to turn 17)

-Their eldest son, Prince Phillip (3 years old)

-Their youngest son, Prince Dillon (2 years old)

-Their faithful sheepdog and descendant of Max, Briar

**The Royal Family of Atlantica:**

-The ruling monarch, King Triton

-Triton's eldest daughter, Crown Princess Attina

-Attina's daughter and heir, Princess Athena (16 years old)

-Attina's son, Prince Aalton (15 years old)

-Triton's daughters: Princesses Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, and Andrina

-Princess Alana's daughter, Princess Ondina (11 years old)

-Princess Aquata's daughter, Princess Nerida (6 years old)

**The Royal Family of Corona:**

-The ruling monarch, King Frederic

-Frederic's wife, Queen Arianna

-Frederic and Arianna's daughter, the heir apparent Princess Rapunzel

-Rapunzel's husband, Prince Consort Eugene

-Rapunzel and Eugene's eldest daughter and Rapunzel's heir, Princess Genevieve (17 years old)

-Their eldest son, Prince Frederic (17 years old, twin to Genevieve, fourteen minutes younger)

-Their youngest son, Prince Flynnigan (9 years old)

-Their youngest daughter, Princess Evelina (3 years old)

**The Royal Family of Arendelle:**

-The ruling monarch, Queen Anna

-Her husband, Prince Consort Kristoff

-Anna and Kristoff's eldest son, Crown Prince Axel (19 years old)

-Their middle son, Prince Kennet (18 years old)

-Their youngest son, Prince Esben (14 years old)

**The Aristocrats: **

-King Eric's childhood friend, Lord Søren Von Holstein

-Dowager Queen Victoria's best friend, Duchess Catharina

-Duchess Catharina's grandson, William (18 years old)

-Lord Søren's niece and Melody's rival, Lady Elisabet Wenstrup (17 years old)

-Elisabet's friend, Edvard Olsen(18 years old)

-Elisabet and Edvard's friend, Lord Caspian Ludvigsen (17 years old)

**The Common Folk:**

**-**Carlotta Nielson, Eric and Ariel's maid

-Grimsby, Eric's closest friend, chief of the royal household staff

-Chef Louis, the best cook in the kingdom and Sebastian's mortal enemy

-Nora Agner, Melody's trustful lady's maid and closest confidant

-Marta Damgaard, Phillip and Dillon's protective nanny

-Erwyn the Hermit, a mysterious old man that lives by the shore

**The Merfolk:**

-Urchin, Ariel's old friend

-Pearl, Ariel's old friend

-Alex, Urchin's son (18 years old)

-Lyra, Alex's childhood friend (18 years old)

-Kaito, Alex's closest friend (19 years old)

-Cora, Pearl's daughter (17 years old)

**Notes:**

**-Heir apparent and crown prince/princess means they're next in line for the throne. They take over when the ruling monarch either abdicates or dies**

**-Husbands of queens are given the title Prince Consort instead of King because they cannot be above their wife's station of Queen**

**-A dowager queen (sometimes called queen dowager) is the mother of the ruling monarch/widow of the king. There's not really any power with the title, it's just a title**

**-Fun Fact: some people believe that Eric is a ****descendant of Phillip and Aurora from _Sleeping Beauty, _because there's a painting in Eric's palace (the dining room) that looks like it could possibly be them. That's why Eric and Ariel's son is named Phillip and their dog's name is Briar ;)**

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**Author's Notes:**

**-Remember the blonde girl and her two friends that were gossiping about Melody being strange and talking to fish? They're in this too (look under the aristocrats) as Elisabet, Edvard (the pudgy one), and Caspian (the tall one). William is the boy she danced with at her 12th birthday ball. They don't officially have names, so I had to be a little creative. I tried sticking with Danish names because the original story was written by Hans Christian Andersen**

**-Also, if you remember when Melody first goes to Atlantica, she kind of meets Alex's friends. They're listed under merfolk as Lyra and Kaito (again, they had no official names in the movie)**

**-I know there's a lot of characters listed here, but they don't appear all at once so it won't be confusing. **The other royal families are mostly just mentioned or make a brief appearance. **This is just an introduction list/ there for later in case you need a reminder. **

** Please tell me what you think!**


	2. Prologue

The ocean had always called to her, and she supposed that many in her seaside kingdom could say the same thing. After all, they boasted the largest royal navy and best-trained sailors on the continent. But the pull she had felt to sea was an instinct unlike any human's. It had been that way for as long as she could remember, even though she had always been taught to fear it…

For the first twelve years of her life, she had been kept in the dark of her mother's heritage. Her parents had told her that her mother was a princess from another kingdom, but the specific location had always been kept a secret. Even when Melody would pester the servants for answers, the answer had always been the same: "Her Majesty is from a nearby kingdom, Your Royal Highness."

Little did Melody know just how close her mother had been to her father's kingdom. Below the surface of the water, her mother had been a princess of Atlantica, the youngest daughter of King Triton and the late Queen Athena. Her mother, better known as Princess Ariel back then, had been the most spirited, curious, and adventurous of her six sisters. At the tender age of sixteen, she had recklessly given away her voice to the sea-witch, Ursula, for a chance at love on land. Thankfully, in the end, everything had worked out. Her mother regained her voice and made the tough decision to leave her beloved father and sisters, her vibrant green tail, and, of course, the big blue behind for a new life above water with a young human prince.

But Melody's parents had somehow managed to hide all of this from her for twelve years. Out of fear of retribution for Ursula's death, they had told her countless lies and even built a hideous wall to keep her away from the water and locked inside the palace where they knew she was safe.

It wasn't until the disaster that was her twelfth birthday ball that she discovered her mermaid heritage. It had all been to protect her, she had known that, but Melody had still been resentful enough to go out and find answers on her own. It had been a naïve mistake by trusting the sea-witch, but it had at least exposed the truth: that she was no ordinary human. She was, in fact, half mermaid. The soothing saltwater of the ocean was a part of her just as much as the luscious rolling green hills of her father's kingdom.

She was a princess of both the land _and_ the sea...

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**PLEASE let me know what you think!**

**First official chapter coming soon...**


	3. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The ball had been in full swing for hours, chatter and laughter hung in the air as the guests became bubblier than their champagne. It had been a delightful evening so far, she had danced with all of the required suitors and mingled with the court just as her parents had expected her to. She had graciously smiled through boring conversations and resisted rolling her eyes countless times at her least favorite nobles and all of the sycophants.

But longer the ball went on, the more everyone danced, the hotter it became even on that early spring night. When the servants had opened up the delicate glass doors, the salty sea breeze had hit her like a tidal wave and filled her with an overwhelming sense of longing. She adored the scent of the sea, it was almost as comforting as being enveloped in the refreshing water. Almost.

It was almost like a spell, the way she was entranced by the water. Everything else in the world melted away as she slowly walked outside and set her sights on the dark water. The lights from the palace twinkled on the top and illuminated her way down the sweeping staircase that lead to a small beach and pier that had replaced the hideous wall she had destroyed. About halfway down, the noise from the party was beginning to get drowned out by the sound of waves crashing into the break wall but the sight of a lingering shadow in the water by the pier made her pause on her descent. Her absence at the party would be diligently noted by her parents and undoubtedly lead to a lecture on proper princess behavior. But as much as Melody wanted to make her parents proud, acting like the future Queen of Dania that everyone wanted her to be, she couldn't stand to be in that ballroom another second knowing that_ he_ was somewhere down there, waiting for her.

Once again, she grabbed her dress and ran the rest of the way down the stairs. When she finally reached the bottom, she immediately began to tear off her shoes and set to work on her precious jewels on her ears, neck, and wrist. When they were safely tucked away in her shoes, she began to rip off the outer layers of her dress with discard. If anyone caught her in such a state of undress, it would be almost considered a scandal for the princess, which was why she was much more careful now than she had been in her tweens. Her body had grown and matured since her first adventure in the ocean, running around the palace in her bloomers was simply no longer an option unless she wanted the whole kingdom gossiping about her indecency.

"I've never understood why humans bother with so many layers of clothes." His voice called out with the whisper of a smile from his corner of the pier.

Melody giggled and turned, now that her eyes were adjusting to the dark she could see that him, her Alex. His muscular naked torso was exposed as he rested his elbows on the surface of the pier and his green eyes lit up in amusement as she desperately tried to loosen her infuriating corset that Nora, her maid, had tied way too tight. It was always near impossible to get off without help, but she always tried it herself before allowing him to undo the rest.

"You and me both." Melody huffed. There were times that even she did not understand why everyone on land was so obsessed with clothing and making sure every inch of the female anatomy was covered. Merfolk like him didn't worry about clothes in the water, unless you counted shell bras. To them, clothing weighed and slowed you down.

"Just jump in and let me help." Even though she almost had it, she did as he said with a running start, tucking her legs into herself as she launched off the edge with a small excited squeal. The second she hit the water a relief that she hadn't known she was looking for found her.

When her feet hit the bottom and she could tell he was using his green tail to balance himself up in the shallow water as if he were standing up like a human. When she came up, she only came up to his shoulders. Melody had always known that if Alex had been human, he would most definitely be considered tall, but it was always so hard to tell in the water, especially when they were away from the shallows and swimming freely. With him standing over her like that, almost for a brief second, it felt like they were a part of the same world, not a human and a merman sneaking off to the shadows for a moment alone, but just two people in love.

Before she could even say anything, how she had been thinking of him all day, how much she had missed him, how much she wished she would have accepted her grandfather's offer to join them below the water's surface in Atlantica nearly four years ago, he captured her lips and all of the words that had been bouncing around in her brain. While her arms wrapped around his shoulders and kept his mouth occupied, his hands silently went to work on freeing her rib cage from the crushing corset.

By the time she needed to breathe, the constricting contraption had been abandoned and her legs had wrapped around his waist. "I've missed you, Mel" He whispered against her lips, falling back so that he was no longer standing, taking her down with him. She was relieved he hadn't used her nickname from when she had been tongue-tied by the cute blond merboy. Alex and his friends, Kaito and Lyra, had genuinely thought that her name was Mel-mel until they had found out she was actually Princess Melody of Dania, the daughter of Ariel and the eldest granddaughter to their King Triton.

"I've missed you too." She said, eagerly kissing him again. Melody tried to savor every second of it, enjoying the taste of the sea on his lips and the electricity flowing through her veins. She always tried to treasure their moments together as if they'd be their last, because for all she knew, they could be.


End file.
